There’s a 1970 film called Quiet Days in Clichy, based on a spicy Henry Miller memoir. Near the beginning, a woman appears naked, and there’s this narrow ribbon or strip of embroidered cloth stuck on her skin just above her pubic area (a.k.a. map of Tasmania). Never heard of this before. What is it, some sort of tax stamp? Or just a decoration the purpose of which I can’t fathom? Is this something French women used to do? I must know!
Not safe for work even though nudity in and of itself is not a bad thing. Thanks.
I’ve never seen this, but the description reminds me of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt’s 1948 novel The Carnelian Cube. The hero of the novel moves through a series of parallel worlds (like the Multiverse in the MCU), which are similar to ours but with significant differences. In one of these realities it’s perfectly acceptable to walk about almost completely nude. But you absolutely have to keep your belly button covered, or else you’re considered “indecent”
Looks to me like it’s intended to draw attention to the pubic area.
If you get used to people going around naked, no part of the body really draws more attention than any other part. Our extreme interest in certain parts has to do to a large extent with their being ordinarily covered. So if she, or multiple people in the particular work or society depicted, often goes/go around naked – then if the intent is to draw eyes to her sexual parts, something additional is needed.
Many years ago, on a nude beach in California, I saw a man with a feather braided into his pubic hair. Same idea. It’s to make you look.
There’s an American Indian myth from the Southeast about three women having a contest to see who had the most beautiful pubic hair. The woman who won had a Disney-esque friendship with the hummingbirds, who braided some of their colorful feathers into her pubic hair. She won, of course.
That myth has stuck with me for many years because it’s so odd to me – a pubic hair beauty contest? Proof that there is diversity among cultures. Maybe this guy knew about the myth, too.
Hah! I didn’t know that story, and am glad to know it now.
I expect they’d be thoroughly shocked by this society’s current tendency to shave it all off. Have the razor manufacturers not thought of all the decorations and fancy shampoo treatments they could be selling instead of razors, waxers, and depilatories?
Never heard of that before. Seems to be an Aussie thing. Looking at Tasmania it is an excellent description however. I’m a natural look guy and love the idea of the pubic hair beauty contest. In my opinion the Japanese ladies would win.
Incidentally, I am shocked and apologize for the Live Sex Cam promotions that Postimage (the photo hosting site) splattered over and under my comparatively demure pictures. And here I was worried they would take my stuff down. Needn’t’ve.
Next time you are on YouTube, a singer named Amanda Palmer wrote a song about the subject.
It’s not safe for work, but its exuberant vulgarity makes it too comical to be really obscene.
I read somewhere about some Native American nation that would generally walk around bottomless. They spend most of their time wading in shallow marshes, rivers and lakes, so they usually went naked from the waist down. Maybe it was them.
I just wanted to mention that folks might want to do a bit of research on Palmer before throwing views her way, especially for a song of a sexual nature.
To be clear: Palmer was (maybe still is) married to author Neil Gaiman. It’s been alleged that she was complicit in sexual abuse committed by Gaiman, and has recently been sued for human trafficking.
I dug out my book with the myth. It’s from a Natchez version of the story of te Rolling Heads. The un-named heroine who comes to live as one of the wives of the chief of a different tribe and undergoes various tests
Cottie Burland Native American Indian Mythology (Paul Hamlyn 1965/1968) p. 115 I received this and another mythology book as a gift. I had been a fan of Classical and Norse mythology before this, but this set me off purchasing and reading books of non-“Western” mythology
Nothing in the myth or anthropology about the Natchez walking around bottomless.
